Managing Resources to Facilitate Altering the Number of Active Processors

1. A method of managing resources, comprising: identifying a resource associated with a first graphics processor of a plurality of processors responsive to an impending transition of the first graphics processor from a first state to a second state, wherein at least a second graphics processor of the plurality of processors remains in a powered state both before and after the transition, wherein the identifying further comprises accessing a memory associated with a computer processing unit (CPU) to determine contents of a memory associated with the first graphics processor; and when the second state is a sub-operational state, copying the identified resource from a memory associated with the first graphics processor to the memory associated with the second graphics processor; and when the second state is a powered state, copying the identified resource to the memory associated with the first graphics processor from the memory associated with the second graphics processor.

2. The method of claim 1 , wherein the second state is the sub-operational state.

3. The method of claim 2 , further comprising: determining that the first graphics processor will be in the sub-operational state after the transition.

4. The method of claim 2 , wherein the first graphics processor is a slave graphics processing unit (GPU) and the second graphics processor is a master GPU.

5. The method of claim 1 , wherein the second state is the powered state.

6. The method of claim 5 , wherein the first graphics processor is a slave graphics processing unit (GPU) and the second graphics processor is a master GPU.

7. The method of claim 1 , wherein the second state is the sub-operational state and wherein the identifying comprises: identifying resources that are stored in the memory associated with the first graphics processor and not stored in the memory associated with the second graphics processor using a lookup table stored in the memory associated with the CPU, wherein the copying the identified resource from the memory associated with the first graphics processor comprises: copying only the identified resources to the memory associated with the second graphics processor.

8. The method of claim 1 , further comprising: identifying the impending transition based on a detected system event.

9. The method of claim 1 , wherein the first state or the second state is a state in which memory refreshes are disabled for at least a portion of the memory associated with the first graphics processor.

10. A system for managing power, comprising: a control processing unit (CPU); and a memory in communication with the control processing unit (CPU), said memory for storing a plurality of processing instructions for directing said CPU to: identify a resource associated with a first graphics processor responsive to an impending transition of the first graphics processor from a first state to a second state, wherein at least a second graphics processor of a plurality of processors remains in a powered state both before and after the transition, wherein to identify the resource the plurality of processing instructions further direct the CPU to access the memory in communication with the CPU to determine contents of a memory associated with the first graphics processor; and when the second state is a sub-operational state, copy the identified resource from the memory associated with the first graphics processor to a memory associated with the second graphics processor; and when the second state is a powered state, copy the identified resource to the memory associated with the first graphics processor from the memory associated with the second graphics processor.

11. The system of claim 10 , wherein the second state is the sub-operational state.

12. The system of claim 11 , further comprising a plurality of processing instructions for directing the CPU to: determine that the first graphics processor will be in the sub-operational state.

13. The system of claim 11 , wherein the first graphics processor is a slave graphics processing unit (GPU) and the second graphics processor is a master GPU.

14. The system of claim 10 , wherein the second state is the powered state.

15. The system of claim 10 , wherein the second state is the sub-operational state; further comprising a plurality of processing instructions for directing the CPU to: identify resources that are stored in the memory associated with the first graphics processor and not stored in the memory associated with the second graphics processor using a lookup table stored in the memory in communication with the CPU, further comprising a plurality of processing instructions for directing the first graphics processor to: copy only the identified resources to the memory associated with the second graphics processor.

16. A non-transitory computer readable medium carrying one or more sequences of one or more instructions for execution by one or more processors to perform a method of managing resources, the instructions when executed by the one or more processors, cause the one or more processors to: identify a resource associated with a first graphics processor responsive to an impending transition of the first graphics processor from a first state to a second state, wherein at least a second graphics processor of a plurality of processors remains in a powered state both before and after the transition, wherein the identifying the resource further comprises accessing a memory associated with a control processing unit (CPU) to determine contents of a memory associated with the first graphics processor; and when the second state is a sub-operational state, copy the identified resource from a memory associated with the first graphics processor to the memory associated with the second graphics processor; and when the second state is a powered state, copy the identified resource to the memory associated with the first graphics processor from the memory associated with the second graphics processor.

17. The computer readable medium of claim 16 , wherein the first graphics processor is a slave graphics processing unit (GPU) and the second graphics processor is a master GPU.

18. The computer readable medium of claim 16 , further comprising the one or more processors to: identify the impending transition based on a detected system event.